Trouble-free talks in fishy waters

The EU in June opened membership talks with Iceland in four of the 33 policy areas into which accession negotiations are divided. Another two are expected to be opened on 19 October, and another handful in December.

Össur Skarphédinsson, Iceland’s foreign minister, has said that he wants the bulk of negotiations to be tackled by mid-2012, including the two chapters that are expected to be the most difficult, agriculture and fisheries.

Preparations for opening new chapters are proceeding quickly in the working group of national diplomats in Brussels that is in charge of defining the EU’s position. That is no surprise, given that Iceland has implemented a large proportion of EU legislation through its membership of the European Economic Area, which links Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway to the EU’s internal market.

But the real questions are political, not technical, and hence are only touched upon in next week’s progress report (Iceland’s second).

Minority accession support

While a majority of Icelanders appear to be in favour of continuing membership talks, supporters of actual accession are still a minority; and the mood music is not necessarily improving on either side. A row with Scotland over mackerel quotas is escalating, with reports that the UK government might ask the European Commission this week to impose sanctions against Iceland. A dispute about Iceland’s liability for Dutch and British deposits lost in a banking crash in 2008 may be getting closer to resolution, with asset recovery efforts now covering almost all claims, although legal action continues.